THE Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) chairperson Glen Mashinini has declared the local government elections, in which 12.3 million people voted, was ‘free and fair’.
The sixth local government elections were contested by a record 325 political parties and over 95 000 candidates, of whom over 1 500 were independent candidates.
Addressing political leaders, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the announcement of the results in Pretoria, Mashinini said the IEC was able to deliver a free and fair election despite a number of challenges it faced, including the Covid-19 pandemic, a short timeframe of just 42 days and Eskom’s power interruptions, among others.
“Despite these challenges, we achieved our innovative objectives of taking our electoral system to the next level of automation through the introduction of the voter management device, which has put paid to the possibility that there could ever be allegations double voting,” said Mashinini.
“The fact that we are here today, having delivered these elections is an achievement we should all be proud of as a nation. Our thriving, vibrant and maturing democracy has indeed withstood the test thrown at it.”
More than 12 million South Africans cast their ballots over the past weekend and on Monday, to vote for candidates who they prefer to represent them in the country’s 257 municipal councils.
“We are satisfied that, bar a few incidents, for which we apologise, that we have delivered quality elections. We are proud to proclaim to the world that we are still flying high the banner of electoral integrity, excellence and free and fair elections.
“Through these elections, we have sent a resounding message to the world at large that we South Africans remain a beacon of pre-eminence in the conduct of electoral democracy. It is then my singular honour to hereby declare the 2021 Municipal Elections concluded as free and fair,” he said.
Mashinini announced that throughout the country, the African National Congress (ANC) clinched the majority seats in 161 municipal councils, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 13 municipalities which is closely followed by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) which now holds majority seats in 10 municipal councils.
Mashinini added that at least 66 municipal councils are hung – meaning that no party gained an outright majority in those councils.
Mashinini called on all the 10 461 newly chosen councillors-elect to improve the lives of those communities they now serve.
“We congratulate the 10 461 councillors who have won the right to serve our people. We urge them to go out and make the lives of our people better. Go out and ensure that our communities develop and live in peace. Go out and, through your honest and ethical work, guarantee the future of our children,” Mashinini said.
After several days of counting, the results of the country’s eight metros were also finalised on Thursday, with the ANC being the biggest loser.
This filtered to the metros, where only three of the eight had clear winners where political parties achieved over 50% of the vote.
While the DA lost some ground, the ANC’s drastically reduced majority puts it in pole position to begin coalition negotiations.
The DA won the City of Cape Town, albeit with a reduced majority.
The party amassed 135 seats, less than the 154 it won in 2016.
The ANC retained its official opposition status, albeit with reduced seats, having won 43, a lot less than the 57 it gained in 2016.
And with 100% of votes tallied in Johannesburg, the metro remains hung with both the ANC and DA failing to get a majority in the metro.
Both political parties have seen a decline in numbers compared to 2016.
The ANC has 91 seats with 33,60%, a decline from 121 seats in 2016.
The DA has 71 seats with 26,14% of the votes.
The party has lost 33 seats from 2016 where it held 104 seats and 38,41%.
The biggest winner in Johannesburg is Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA, with the new kid on the block securing 44 seats.
It’s the third biggest party in the metro at 16,05%.
It is followed by the EFF which lost one seat from 2016.
The Patriotic Alliance has also made gains having competed for the first time. The PA has 8 seats, while the IFP has 7 and the FF-Plus has four.
The ANC won with outright majority in two municipalities – Mangaung and Buffalo City – where it got 50.63% and 59.3% respectively.
This means the ANC is the biggest loser after failing to get outright majority in the metros it was governing, including City of Johannesburg, eThekwini and Ekurhuleni where it got 33.60%, 42.02% and 38.18% respectively.
Although the party has received majority of the votes in these municipalities, including Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, it will need the help of other political parties to form coalition governments.
Mashinini announced the following results for the country’s tightly contested eight metropolitan municipalities:
- Buffalo City: the ANC is in the majority with 59%, followed by the DA with 19.52% and the EFF with 12.06%.
- City of Cape Town: the DA won that council with 58.22%, the ANC won 18.63% of the vote and the EFF won 4.13%.
- Ekurhuleni was won by the ANC with 38.19%, in second was the DA with 28.72% and the EFF with 13.57% of the vote.
- In Ethekwini in KwaZulu Natal, the ANC won 42.2%, followed by the Democratic Alliance with 25.6% and the EFF with 10.49%.
- In the City of Johannesburg, the ANC won 33.60%, the DA won 26.47% and Action SA won 16.05% of the votes.
- In Mangaung, the ANC won the majority of seats after receiving 50.63% of the votes, followed by the DA with 25.73% and the EFF with 11.31%.
- The ANC and the DA won exactly the same amount of council seats in the Nelson Mandela Bay council after receiving about 39% of the vote each, the EFF came in third with 6.4% of the support.
- The City of Tshwane has shown that the ANC won 34.31% of the votes, closely followed by the DA with 32.34% and the EFF came in third with 10.62% of the vote.
- Inside Politics. Additional reporting by SAnews.gov.za